If those who could govern best don’t want power, then who’s winning elections? In this impassioned talk, Etienne Chouard wrestles with what the answers may mean for democracy as we know it. (Filmed at TEDxRepubliqueSquare.)

In 2005, before the European referundum, while teaching economics and law, Etienne Chouard looked closely to the draft version of the European Constitution. What he discovered changed him forever. He woke up, policatilly. Since then, and independently from any political organizations, he warns us against our apathy, denounces our responsibility and wants to restore the true meaning of democracy. His motto : a Constitution written by citizens and representatives selected by sortition.

The most interesting idea in Chouard’s work is that we don’t live in a real democraty but under a representative government. It is not the same. What the Nations needs is an Open Constitution written by and for people and not by and for professionals politicians and their experts. We need a Citizen’s Constitution written by citoyens chosen by draw because in his mind election = corruption. It is a revolutionnary idea.